Hard tags are utilized by retail stores to prevent shoplifting for electronic article surveillance. Tags are affixed to various merchandise throughout the store and removed or deactivated by a store clerk when merchandise product is checked out. The tags may contain mechanisms to affix the tag to the merchandise, as for example with a locking portion, and to sound alarms when the tag is active, as for example with an alarm portion. Other tags may be benefit denial type tags, wherein for example, the tag includes vials of ink which can break if one attempts to break the tag instead of properly being removed from the merchandise by a retailer.
Typically, the locking portion of a hard tag includes a ball chamber assembly with spring used to retain a pin into the body of the tag such that material may be contained between a head of the pin and the body portion of the tag.
The alarming portion of hard tags may include various electronic elements for alerting a retailer of merchandise theft. Hard tags typically are constructed to contain these electronic elements, forming electronic article surveillance (EAS) tags, which may be for example an acousto-magnetic (AM) tag, a radio frequency (RF) tag, or electro-magnetic (EM) tag. Hard tags are also constructed as radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, which may respond at low, high, or ultra high frequencies.
In an EAS tag, electronic elements include a resonant circuit of coil coupled to a capacitor. The circuit is tuned to a predetermined frequency and if one attempts to remove the hard tag containing these elements from a store, an alarm triggers as the tag passes through a surveillance field created by a transmitter and receiver located between pedestals at the store exit, tuned to the same frequency. The alarm goes off as the EAS tag resonates, providing an output signal detected by a receiver, also located in the pedestals. An AM tag is magnetized or affixed with particular circuitry such that when the tag meets an emitted tonal burst from a tag detector, the tag resonates to activate the tag to set off an alarm at the detector. A RF tag is affixed with an inductor/capacitor (LC) circuit which alarms at a detector sweeping for the resonant frequency of the tag. The same principal may apply to AM tags affixed with an LC circuit.
An RFID tag typically includes the electronic elements of an integrated circuit (IC) and an RF LC circuit (resonant circuit) and/or antenna (e.g. a dipole antenna), tuned to a predetermined RF frequency. Often, the integrated circuit IC comprises a memory that has been programmed with information associated with the article (e.g., product ID information such as a serial number, unique identification number, price, etc.). When a transmitter emits a signal at the predetermined RF frequency and threshold value which is received by the tuned antenna, the RFID element emits a signal containing the stored information which is then received by a receiver and the information demodulated from the element-emitted signal. This information can then be used for, among other things, determining whether to set off an alarm or not. The RFID tag may also be used for merchandise visibility, inventory control, and to identify where a tag and associated product are located or where they have moved to or from within the store.
In alternative to an EAS tag, a portion of a hard tag may include a benefit denial device. A benefit denial tag typically includes ink releasing elements, such that when an attempt to break the tag from a product is performed, glass vials of ink shatter within the tag, ultimately leaking about the product which devalues the product and likewise to provide notification to the retailer that that particular merchandise was tampered with.
The alarming and locking portions of benefit denial type tags, EAS tags, and or RFID tags are often housed in a multiple enclosure pieces, with elements of the various portions connected to the enclosure pieces. For example in an EAS tag, the locking portion and alarm portion are placed in a first enclosure piece and then second enclosure piece is placed over top the first enclosure piece, as a cover, with the locking and alarm portions placed therein. The enclosure pieces are then typically ultrasonically welded together.
Having to ultrasonically weld enclosure pieces together prevents the formation of smaller sized hard tags. Smaller sized benefit denial, RFID, and EAS type hard tags are desired in the retail industry so as to hide the tag from customers so as not to disrupt the aesthetics of the item for sale. Retailers would rather avoid the visual hindrance of a hard tag by attaching even smaller tag models. Retailers may also prefer to hide smaller sized hard tags in or around the merchandise so that potential shoplifters cannot find the tag to therefore remove the tag from an item before stealing it. Using numerous enclosure pieces provides increased assembly steps, more welding, and more quality control processing steps.
What is needed is a hard tag having a single continuous housing, not requiring the assembly and ultrasonic welding, or any other kind of connecting process, of numerous enclosure pieces. This would allow for the manufacturing of smaller sized tags. Smaller sized tags in the industry would meet the desires of retailers so that they may better conceal a tag and/or avoid visual hindrance caused by the tag about merchandise. A tag with a single housing would require less material, less assembly processes, and less quality control steps. In another benefit, the solid housing tag may be overall lighter in weight resulting in less impact and less risk of damage to fabric of which the solid housing tag is attached or hanging from, due to the smaller size of the tag.